Chris Boardman, a three-time prologue winner during his Tour de France career,
believes Bradley Wiggins should seize the opportunity of challenging for the
yellow jersey from the start on Saturday and target the 6.4km prologue in
Liege city centre.

Blast from the past: Chris Boardman (centre) riding in the 1998 Tour de FrancePhoto: AP

Wiggins, like Boardman, is a former Olympic pursuit champion over 4km, and the quick-fire opener in Belgium certainly offers up an early chance to make a statement of intent.

The conventional wisdom is that potential GC winners should make their move into yellow much later in the race to avoid the extra workload of defending the jersey but Wiggins needs to maximise his advantage in the time-trials this year.

The Tour organisers ASO have given him 101.5km of TT racing and Wiggins needs to take as much time out of his main opponents as possible.

A 25-sec gain on Saturday might seem trivial in a 3497km race but could yet prove crucial in what promises to be a close race.

"I wouldn’t be surprised, the way he’s been building up, if he did take the prologue,” says Boardman who won in 1994, 1997 and 1998.

“It would be about time. I think you just take the jersey when you can get it. You shouldn’t ride any differently after the prologue, you either defend or you don’t defend.”

Although Boardman was always one of the riders to beat on a Tour de France prologue or time-trial, the former world tour record holder never quite transferred his supreme talent into becoming a GC rider – his best Tour finish was 39th – and he has been massively impressed with Wiggins’ recent transformation.

“Brad has far surpassed everything that I did. He just needs to keep doing what he’s been doing. The last two years he’s been phenomenal.

"The Tour is a special thing. It is the unofficial World Championships, everybody knows that. Would you rather win an Olympic title, world title or the Tour de France? The Tour de France. It’s the hardest-fought thing. “

Meanwhile, Great Britain's David Millar missed Wednesday night's Tour de France Teams presentation in Liege with what was described as a minor illness but is expected to start in Saturday's 6.4km prologue for his team Garmin-Sharp